Working for the Missouri Volunteer Movement has been
a great
experience for me. I have had the privilege of watching it go from an
idea shared by a small group of individuals, to forming a PAC
(Political Action Committee),
opening a bank account for the committee, building a website, and
setting up a Facebook page.

Now this may not seem like a lot, but it has taken a
lot of
work and we have had to jump through a lot of hoops to accomplish this
much. When trying to set up the PAC – which we had to set up in order
to accept donations, in order to form an official party later down the
road – we had to read through the Missouri ethics laws (a mess in
itself). The problem was figuring out what kind of committee to form…
and there were a lot of legal grey areas.

I decided to email the Missouri Ethics Commission in
order to
determine the best fit. When I didn’t receive a reply after a few days,
I re-sent the exact same email with URGENT in the
subject box.
Suddenly, I received a reply by the end of the day.

The point I’m trying to make is that there are so
many rules
to learn, and so much nonsense to sift through, that it makes it
difficult for citizens to be involved. Even if someone were to simply
attempt to read the Missouri Constitution they would have a difficult
time due to the large words and run-on sentences.

Another problem I noticed is that the state
bureaucrats simply
don’t seem to care whether what they deem as
“ordinary” people are kept
informed about, or understand, the regulations set up to participate in
their government. We even attempted to reach out to the Secretary of
State to have him assist us, and still have not received a reply over a
month later. (Click
here to read the full story.)

Citizens should have the ability to read and
understand their
state constitution and laws – otherwise how can they actively take
part? With all of the nonsense prominent in politics this is nearly
impossible for the average person. Therefore, the Missouri Volunteer
Movement is determined to enact changes to make it possible.

Taylor Pitchford is a Volunteer leader in Jefferson
County, and the secretary for Missouri Volunteers for Government
Reform, a
Political Action Committee (PAC) of the Volunteer Movement. Click
here to
read her bio or contact her.